Aussie Rules - Who Dares Wins...

As strange as it sounded to many, during my recent Asian travels I took a weekend break to Australia. Admittedly not the typical place for a few days away but, already located south of the Equator and with acute synchronisation of the red-eye travel I normally try to avoid, I was able to engineer close to a full 72 hours for a refresher visit with family and still make it in time for the office on Monday.

There are many myths about life Down Under and whilst I can dispel those that people, animals, cars, trains and buses do not in fact operate upside down, that the only people alluding to a Crocodile Dundee cork trimmed hat are the tourists (usually drunk) and that water does not flow in the opposite direction, as I embarked on my 72 hour whistle stop tour of WA I did have to contemplate….is the slow pace of life down-under as simple as the effects of  the laws of reversed gravity or, is it simply the sunshine that slows down life the further south you move from the Equator?

Akin to their northerly neighbours, the Australian pace of life is as aligned to the equatorial equilibrium that is found from Europe to the Americas, where days get hotter then life gets slower.

However, as I moved around my western slice of Australia, I wondered…does the mañana theory really transcend to every sun filled city between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn or just how much of Aussie rules is actually less about laissez-faire and more about self-service?

With coffee shops and bars lining every street, harbour, beach and mall it is clear that tea- breaks and pit-stops play a priority time-out in the the Australian every day game and, if Aussie Rules is the game of ultimate invasion, then surviving a trip down under needs first division tactics. Stand in queue and you may very well wait to mañana - in the Aussie rule book ‘queue’ is spelled ‘me’ and there is no such thing as first come first served. Shout and be served, follow etiquette and fall to the back of the non-line.

So, as I dispel another myth of sunshine hospitality, I search to re-unite with my city blinkers and wonder …is there a speed limit for life in the fast lane down under that should be introduced to colder climes or do we all, in fact, play by the Aussie Rules?

'Til next time, Pandora